Much is made about young players and social media in pro sports, and NFLers are no exception. Data from analytics firm MVPindex shows 34.5 million people follow active players under the age of 25 across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. There also is room to grow for these young players. Among the top 10 most-followed NFLers under 25, only two have eclipsed the 1 million followers mark across the three platforms. Among the top 10 social NFLers under 25, they have a total reach across the three platforms of 6.2 million people. The top three players have combined for 161 Facebook posts over the last 30 days, while the remainder of the top 10 registered only 42 posts on the platform during that time. Among the top 10 most social NFLers under 25, Nos. 6-10 are dominated by WRs. Bills WR Sammy Watkins comes in at No. 10, while Panthers WR Kelvin Benjamin -- on IR this season -- is No. 8 and Raiders rookie WR Amari Cooper is No. 7. This year’s No. 1 overall pick, Buccaneers QB Jameis Winston, ranks No. 6 among young NFLers on social media. See tomorrow’s issue for Nos. 1-5 in MVPindex’ ranking, as well as more info on which player leads each platform.
: MVPindex ranks athletes against their peers using three metrics: Reach, Engagement, and Conversation scores. The reach score is calculated by comparing the number of fans and followers of an athlete to the average number of fans of all athletes in the sport.
